Donald MacLean, M.D.
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Donald Maclean taught surgery at Michigan for seventeen years, 1872-89. He attended Edinburgh for his medical education. In his clinical years at Edinburgh, Maclean had assisted James Syme, and had become proficient in amputations and excisions for which Syme was famous. Syme told Maclean to pay attention to Joseph Lister and his antiseptic doctrine: “There is something in it.”
In October 1877 Maclean used Lister’s carbolic acid spray in two operations before the class, but he soon abandoned the spray, citing deaths from carbolic acid poisoning. Instead, he urgently advocated “perfect cleanliness,” and Will Mayo, who was Maclean’s student, said that Maclean’s insistence on cleanliness anticipated Lister’s aseptic surgery. At the Pavilion Hospital, which was completed in 1876, Will Mayo could stand beside Maclean at the operating table. Mayo would also have experienced giving anesthesia. There were no anesthesiologist, and chloroform was given by anyone handy. He might also have had responsibility for postoperative care, for after completing his work, Maclean left for Detroit, where he lived and practiced medicine. (Not Just Any Medical School, by Horace W. Davenport.)
